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Meet Santa’s publicist

Every weekday, PR Daily associate editor Alan Pearcy highlights the day’s most compelling stories and amusing marginalia on the Web in this, #TheDailySpin.

Let’s get this straight: He goes in to peoples’ houses uninvited (trespassing and/or breaking and entering), eats their food (theft), probably tracks in soot from the chimney (destruction of property), forces reindeer to haul his plus-size keister across the globe in a single night (animal abuse), and wears that red suit (crime against fashion). And yet Santa Claus is one of the most beloved people of holiday lore. But how? It seems he’s got a great publicist. Thought Catalog explains how it all started.

At Diesel, the "Magic of Christmas” goes beyond Santa’s PR team. The fashion retailer launched a three-part Web series in which it hypnotized a cast of spellbound models into believing they were a bunch of fervent five-year-olds eager to open presents. See episodes two and three after watching part one below.

For interns at Lowe Roches, the magic of the holidays came when the agency decided to help its “less fortunate” staff members by setting up the site InternHolidayBonus.com. As explained in this SPCA-esque video, the company will donate $1 to young … well, no one knows his name. Still, it’s a worthy cause.

Not so sure you agree with Price’s picks? Go ahead and fuel that online fire, especially now that Wired offers this guide to ending Internet-based arguments.

Meanwhile, Hasbro is quickly putting out fires in its toy kitchen. The brand announced it will begin selling a gender-neutral Easy-Bake oven after the company met with 13-year-old McKenna Pope. Pope had recently petitioned the company to include boys in its marketing of the product because she found only pink and purple ovens when Christmas shopping for her four-year-old brother.

All my brother wants for Christmas is a McRib. While I’ll gladly appease his wishes now that the iconic sandwich is back, it wouldn’t hurt him to learn more about the famously molded meat. Business Insider highlights 11 amazing facts about the fast food favorite.

McDonald’s is just one of the many restaurant chains making it harder for mom and pop diners in U.S. cities to keep up with society’s “retail homogenization.” According to the Center For An Urban Future’s fifth annual State of the Chains report, there was a 2.4 percent increase in the total number of chains in New York alone this last year, with Dunkin’ Donuts and its 484 locations leading the way.

Speaking of last year in New York, PRNewser shares seven of the most notable quotes from 2012 industry events it covered throughout the city.